[My SF Past] Nob Hill Tour 3

[Gloria Lenhart]

Brocklebank Apartments
Weeks & Day, 1926

Hitchcock fans may recognize this apartment building. In Vertigo, Jimmy Stewart waits outside this building so that he can follow Kim Novak when she drives out in her Jaguar. While many apartment buildings have been turned in condominiums, the Brocklebank is under rent control. This means rents stay low and it can’t be turned into condos. It also means that residents rarely move out. The smaller Park Lane apartment building across Mason at 1100 Sacramento, also rent controlled, sold for $38 million in 2005, about $1.2 million for each of its 33 apartments. Enjoy the amazing view down Mason Street –it’s free.

Fairmont Hotel
1903  Reid Brothers
1909  Interior reconstruction, Julia Morgan
1962 Tower addition, Mario Gaidano 

In 1902, when two daughters of Silver Bonanza King James Fair began construction of this hotel, they may have hoped to rehabilitate their family name. Theresa Fair Oehlrichs and Virgina Fair Vanderbilt, both married into wealthy, socially prominent families, but that was no thanks to their father. James Fair had divorced their mother and disgraced the family by flaunting affairs with a number of unsavory women. And when he died, he left a huge legal mess that involved two conflicting handwritten wills and two women claiming to be his wife.

Tents in Huntington Park,  1906 San Francisco Public Library  AAC - 3857

Construction went on for four years, and shortly before the new hotel was to open, the sisters sold it to brothers Herbert and Hanford Law. Just two weeks later, the hotel was gutted by fire caused by the 1906 Earthquake. Only the gray granite walls remained.

The Law brothers hired architect Julia Morgan to rebuild the hotel which was opened in 1907, exactly one year after the disaster.. It quickly became a social hub of the city, hosting celebrity guests and events.

In 1929 George Smith, owner of the Mark Hopkins Hotel, purchased the Fairmont and added a swimming pool, a novelty for hotels at that time. He also hired noted Art Deco architect Timothy Pflueger to design the Cirque Lounge with its distinctive wrap around bar.

By the 1940s, the hotel had been in decline when investor and philanthropist Ben Swig bought it. He hired celebrity decorator Dorothy Draper to redo the interior in the style of a Venetian palace, in heavy reds and golds. Most of Draper’s design work was removed in later renovations which reflect Julia Morgan’s original design.

In 1947, Swig opened the Venetian Room as a nightclub, offering big name entertainers like as Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., and of course Tony Bennet, who sang “I Left My Heart..” for the first time here in 1962



--
Posted By Gloria Lenhart to My SF Past at 11/24/2011 03:03:00 PM